An aerial view shows burned down villages once inhabited by the Rohingya seen from the Myanmar military helicopters that carried UN envoys to northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, May 1, 2018. / Reuters

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By Reuters 22 June 2018

YANGON — “Hate narratives” from abroad have driven communities in Myanmar further apart, the Southeast Asian nation’s leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, said in a social media statement on Thursday.

Patience and time are required to restore trust between the communities, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi told Christine Schraner Burgener, the United Nations special envoy on Myanmar on Wednesday, according to the statement on the Nobel Peace laureate’s Facebook page.

Since August, nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims from mainly Buddhist Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State have fled to Bangladesh following a military response to Rohingya insurgent attacks, the United Nations and aid agencies have said.

Many reported killings, rape and arson on a large scale.

The United Nations has called the campaign a textbook example of “ethnic cleansing,” a charge Myanmar denies.

“The state counselor also pointed out that the hate narratives from outside the country have driven the two communities further apart,” the Facebook statement paraphrased Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as saying, without identifying the communities.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi also stressed the need for a forward-looking approach to resolve the issue, it added.

Zaw Htay, a spokesman for the government, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests to clarify what narratives Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was referring to.

In Facebook and Twitter posts since August, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s government has shown support for non-Muslims displaced by the violence and blamed the international community for distributing “fake news” about alleged rights abuses.

Rohingya in Myanmar are denied citizenship, freedom of movement and access to services such as health care and education.

This month, Myanmar and UN agencies signed an outline deal on the return of Rohingya refugees, a warming of ties after a low point hit last year when the government suggested some agencies provided food to Rohingya militants.